Giants have select talent in top scout

Sitting at a table in a quiet hallway at the Indiana Convention Center two months ago -- safely removed from the meat-market atmosphere of the NFL Scouting Combine -- Marc Ross was, for once, reflecting on the past instead of the future.

Of course, he did so reluctantly and only after he was repeatedly asked to recount his greatest finds as an NFL scout.

The first one, which brought a smirk to Ross' face, was easy: Brian Westbrook, whom Ross expected to be dynamic on special teams and as a third-down back but didn't seem likely to turn into the "kill-people, game-plan-for-him" type of player he has been for the Eagles.

Everett is the former Bills tight end who suffered a severe neck injury and was nearly paralyzed while making a tackle on a kickoff last September. He will never play football again.

A special-teams contributor who missed his entire rookie season due to a knee injury and then had his career cut short at three years is one of Ross' favorite finds ever?

"From an off-field standpoint, everything that's happened to him, the resiliency the guy has shown is amazing," Ross said. "He'll be more proud of what he's done than of what he could have done on the field."

Make no mistake: Ross, a former Princeton wide receiver who is now the Giants' director of college scouting, is looking for players who want to win Super Bowls, not Nobel Prizes. And after all eight of the Giants' picks in last year's draft contributed to this past season's championship run, Ross has a high standard to meet.

"We just want him to help us continue to draft good players ... and, of course, good people."

YOUNG AND GREEN
Reese had been the Giants' director of player personnel since 2002 before taking over as general manager last February. Three months later, he hired the 34-year-old Ross to take his place. Ross has climbed the ranks of the scouting system even more quickly than Reese, who was 39 when he became the Giants' college scouting boss.

Ross has always been the young guy. He became a scouting intern in 1996 with the Eagles after one year as a public relations intern for the Giants. Only 23 when he was sent on the road to remote places like Montana to scout obscure players like linebacker Jason Crebo, he didn't know where he was going and had to haggle to get there. Because he was younger than 25, Ross wasn't allowed to rent a car until he proved it was a company account.

"Now, these scouts are getting younger and younger," Ross said. "But when I started, there weren't many guys my age at all."

It didn't stop him from gaining respect. Tom Modrak, hired by the Eagles as director of football operations in May 1998, noticed Ross' eye for talent immediately when he read his report on Florida State tackle Tra Thomas, whom Philly had drafted in the first round a few weeks prior to Modrak's hiring.

"The description and the directness (of the Thomas report) .¤.¤. his whole body of work was excellent," Modrak said. "That was an easy hire for me, to renew him."

Under Modrak, Ross learned a fundamental draft lesson on not caving to outside pressure. In 1999, he and Modrak easily identified Syracuse quarterback Donovan McNabb as the player they wanted to take with the No. 2 overall pick. As the draft approached, the local sports talk station, fans and even the mayor of Philadelphia (now Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell) pleaded with the team to take running back Ricky Williams.

The Eagles took McNabb, who was booed by Philly fans on draft day.

Nine years later, it's clear Ross, Modrak and the rest of the Eagles' scouting department were correct. McNabb has gone to five Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl; Williams has been in and out of the league because of a short-lived retirement and several drug suspensions.

"The bottom line is: Does a guy help you win?" Ross said. "Football comes down to who makes the plays at the right time. Certain guys have a sense for that and a savvy about them. They have great football sense."

In 2000, at the age of 27, Ross' football sense resulted in the Eagles' making him the youngest college scouting director in the NFL.

His climb and good standing with the Eagles ended, however, four years later. Modrak had butted heads with the organization and was fired, followed out the door soon after by his entire staff.

Ross rejoined Modrak in Buffalo and served as a national scout for the Bills. He had a lot of input into last year's impressive draft class, which included running back Marshawn Lynch, linebacker Paul Posluszny and quarterback Trent Edwards -- each of whom started as rookies.

AN HONEST EVALUATION
All the while, Ross has maintained his approach as a scout who doesn't hedge his bets.

"He'll argue with you and that's good. I want guys that feel something and do it," Modrak said. "He doesn't politicize anything.

"If the buzz is going one way and he doesn't feel it, he doesn't go that way. That's a quality that's special in this business."

Ross didn't even sugarcoat his opinions of the Giants' draft last year when he interviewed with Reese and brought all of his reports to show his future boss.

"Some of them were good," Ross said, "some of them were bad."

Ross has been that honest and straightforward for quite some time, according to Steve Verbit, Princeton's defensive coordinator, who recruited Ross out of Archmere Academy in Claymont, Del.

"Everybody was in love with Marc Ross at Archmere," Verbit said. "Teachers, coaches, guidance counselors -- all of them raved about his honesty and sincerity."

Ross' adjustment to the Ivy League, academically and on the field, was a struggle. It wasn't until his junior season that the undersized speedster developed into an All-Ivy League receiver for the Tigers.

"There were times I thought he was a volleyball player instead of a football player," Verbit said. "I would shake my head and think, 'What happened to the hands I saw on this young man two or three years ago?'"

Ross knows how Verbit felt. While with the Eagles, one player he raved about was North Carolina's Na Brown -- a sure-handed receiver in college who quickly came down with a case of the dropsies in three disappointing NFL seasons with Philly.

Of course, no scout is perfect. So Ross has tried not to let players that didn't pan out like Brown affect his approach or confidence in his ability to spot talent.

"It's like a DB -- you get beat, you have to look forward to the next play," Ross said. "You have to have that conviction in your evaluations and your system.

"You can't get gun-shy. You just keep going and forget about it."

Even the successes -- like last year's draft -- can't be held onto for too long.

"As we kept winning and those guys kept making plays, I was like, 'You're putting more pressure on me,'" Ross said with a laugh. "And (Reese) said, 'Hey, I expect you to take us to new levels.'

"To me, it's a challenge. I told the scouts, 'That was a great draft, but it's over with and we have to look forward to next year. Our goal should be to make it even better.' And that is really 100 percent my goal."